Philadelphia City Council

A nearly unanimous City Council passed a new youth curfew Thursday after a long and raucous hearing dominated by often-heated testimony against the measure. The 15-1 vote sent a chamber full of opponents into chants of, "Shame! Shame!" As they filed out, they chanted, "We need schools, not the curfew. " The bill's sponsor, Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, praised those who spoke out, but said many of their concerns had been addressed in a bill the city needed.

When six members of Council with more than a century of experience give way to the next generation of leaders Monday, a pivotal chapter in Philadelphia's political history will close. The nearly departed have been, in many ways, the bridge from the bare-knuckled, barroom politics of yesteryear, when Philadelphia was a declining blue-collar city with an uncertain future. They leave in a new - but no less tough - era when politicians communicate via Twitter and Facebook, and the city is climbing its way to a rebirth through technology, the arts, and a thriving service economy.

City Council on Thursday bowed to a state Supreme Court ruling by opening its regular session to public speakers for the first time since Philadelphia's modern government was born in 1951. It's not that Council had banished public speaking; it just had relegated public testimony to hearings on specific bills. Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court ruled that this violated the 1993 state Sunshine Act and ordered Council to allow public comment at every one of its meetings. "I know my colleagues join me in welcoming those who wish to be heard in this new forum," Council President Anna C. Verna said, though she added that she and her colleagues "are proud of the record of this City Council in providing the public meaningful opportunities to comment on important issues before the Council.

CITY COUNCIL passed a courageous resolution calling for no more drilling of the Marcellus shale until an Environmental Protection Agency study of hydrofracking's risk to water and air is completed, and a cumulative impact study specific to the Delaware watershed is completed. But the Daily News characterized Council's resolution as a "rude gesture" at the state legislature. Hydrofracking presents a risk to 15 million drawing their drinking water from the Delaware River basin. The technique, otherwise known as "high-volume slickwater hydraulic fracturing with horizontal drilling," is so new, so polluting and dangerous that other states, including New York and Arkansas, have statewide moratoriums on any new permits.

After more than eight years of trying and two of the most closely contested elections in Philadelphia history, Republican David Oh has won a seat on City Council. When he takes the job in January, Oh will become the first Asian American to serve on Council. "I think it's a point of pride for Asian Americans in Philadelphia," Oh said Tuesday. "At the end of the day, we're all Philadelphians, and it's important that we all come together to improve our city. " Oh declared victory for an at-large Republican spot on Philadelphia's 17-member legislative body over Al Taubenberger, who bounced back from a weak showing in the May primary to lose to Oh by just 171 votes.

RE THE op-ed "Help Map Council": Chris Satullo is incorrect when he says that our country is a "representative democracy. " The United States is a constitutional republic. The Founding Fathers didn't determine that every decision would be based on majority vote of the people. (The Constitution and Bill of Rights, if applied and not polluted, will allow the United States to surpass the life span of every other great civilization in the history of the world.) We have such a pathetic participation in elections, if the mapping software is that good, just let the program spit out the most numerically balanced districts and be done with it. John H. Morley Jr. Philadelphia The fact that City Council does the redistricting has to be changed.

IN YOUR story regarding pay raises on June 25, you listed several individuals who won't be taking the raises afforded to all elected officials through a process similar to the midnight pay raise the state legislature passed several years ago. (Elected officials get automatic raises each year based on the Consumer Price Index for the previous year.) While City Council's been hard at work raising property taxes almost 14 percent over the last year, depleting the city's reserve balance and raising the sales tax an additional 1 percent, they have each received more than 13.2 percent in raises since July 1, 2006.

City Council has scheduled its first hearing to get public input on redrawing the city's councilmanic districts for Aug. 16 - about three weeks before the deadline to decide the new boundaries. The political watchdog group Committee of Seventy, meanwhile, accused Council on Tuesday of "reneging on its pledge" to have an open and transparent redistricting process that included meetings in the community. "Holding one public hearing in City Hall . . . essentially says to the public, 'We really don't care what you think,' " said Ellen Kaplan, the committee's vice president and policy director.

Like any good TV drama, City Council concluded its 2009-10 season yesterday with a session that revisited key themes of the past year - like the ongoing city budget woes - while still teasing drama ahead, in the shape of new legislation on business taxes and row offices. So as Channel 64 gets ready to play reruns during Council's summer legislative break, here's a look at some of the highlights of the past nine months: Although often criticized for not being reform-minded, Council took on two major reforms this year, abolishing the embattled Board of Revision of Taxes and passing a package of ethics reforms.

Philadelphia's seven at-large Council members ought to play a pivotal role in rocking the city out of the status quo during the next four years. After all, they represent the interests of the whole city, rather than geographically based districts. This race deserves voter attention, but first, some clarification is helpful. Seven at-large seats are up for grabs. Voters, however, can choose only five from among 10 Democrats and Republicans. That way, two of the seven spots go to the minority party.

Friends' Central School, Wynnewood, has named Robert Gassel clerk and Karen Horikawa vice clerk of the board of trustees, beginning July 1, 2012. Gassel is president of Robert Gassel Co. Inc. Horikawa is a member of the Radnor Monthly Meeting and a science teacher and associate science department head at Wilmington Friends School.   Mitchell H. Kizner was selected chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association, Environmental Law Section. Kizner is a member of the environmental practice group, the alternative and renewable energy group and general counsel to Flaster/Greenberg, Cherry Hill and Vineland.

AFTER teaching in the Philadelphia School District for 30 years, Lillie Rose Stanback was not finished with her goal of making the world a better place. She went back to her hometown of Rockingham, N.C., and worked with community organizations and church groups. She became a well-known figure there, dedicated to helping people and spreading her faith. Lillie Rose Stanback, an elementary-school teacher who was honored with citations from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and Philadelphia City Council for her contributions to learning, died Jan. 5. She was 80 and lived in South Philadelphia.

I READ Josh Cornfield's article about Philadelphia School District financial officer Michael Masch and found it both off-target and unnecessarily personal. Masch has served the public in budget-related finance roles for many years. He served on the staff of the Philadelphia City Council, as Philadelphia's budget director, and as Gov. Rendell's budget chief in Harrisburg. In these positions he had to gather information, made decisions and set priorities for billions of dollars. He has shown great integrity in these positions and sometimes made tough calls.

When six members of Council with more than a century of experience give way to the next generation of leaders Monday, a pivotal chapter in Philadelphia's political history will close. The nearly departed have been, in many ways, the bridge from the bare-knuckled, barroom politics of yesteryear, when Philadelphia was a declining blue-collar city with an uncertain future. They leave in a new - but no less tough - era when politicians communicate via Twitter and Facebook, and the city is climbing its way to a rebirth through technology, the arts, and a thriving service economy.

Can you control the Zoning Board's decision on a request for a variance? If an undercover agent asked that question of a Philadelphia City Council member, the whispered answer might be, "Of course. " That's because Council members in this city have "councilmanic prerogative," a self-endowed superpower to stall or support stadiums, concert halls, pedestrian bridges, hotels, housing, museums, signs, decks, fences, and sidewalk cafes. On her way out of office, retiring Councilwoman Donna Miller is using her "prerogative" to allow a six-story building on Germantown Avenue in Chestnut Hill that could be twice as tall as any surrounding structures.

THIS JANUARY, Philadelphia City Council says goodbye to six members. That's a lot of turnover for a legislative body that evolves about as frequently as the British monarchy. It's also an opportunity for some positive change. But change doesn't have to wait until the new year. As lame ducks, the six departing members - Anna Verna, Jack Kelly, Frank DiCicco, Donna Reed Miller, Frank Rizzo and Joan Krajewski - have a unique opportunity, to forget about the political pressures getting elected or of keeping their political cronies happy.

After more than eight years of trying and two of the most closely contested elections in Philadelphia history, Republican David Oh has won a seat on City Council. When he takes the job in January, Oh will become the first Asian American to serve on Council. "I think it's a point of pride for Asian Americans in Philadelphia," Oh said Tuesday. "At the end of the day, we're all Philadelphians, and it's important that we all come together to improve our city. " Oh declared victory for an at-large Republican spot on Philadelphia's 17-member legislative body over Al Taubenberger, who bounced back from a weak showing in the May primary to lose to Oh by just 171 votes.

If you want evidence that the sugared-beverage industry and its friends are worried that Mayor Nutter may try to tax their product again, look no further than the most recent contributions to City Council candidates. Since the May primary, industry leaders and political action committees gave at least $49,000 to Council incumbents and hopefuls. The bulk of the contributions, $31,000, came from the family of Harold Honickman, owners of Pepsi and Canada Dry bottling operations in New Jersey that provide nearly 20 percent of the city's soft drinks.

A nearly unanimous City Council passed a new youth curfew Thursday after a long and raucous hearing dominated by often-heated testimony against the measure. The 15-1 vote sent a chamber full of opponents into chants of, "Shame! Shame!" As they filed out, they chanted, "We need schools, not the curfew. " The bill's sponsor, Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, praised those who spoke out, but said many of their concerns had been addressed in a bill the city needed.

Virginia Wright Knauer, 96, a groundbreaking member of Philadelphia City Council in the 1960s who became a groundbreaking federal consumer-affairs chief under Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Reagan, died Sunday, Oct. 16, at her home in Washington. In biographical material supplied for her obituary, her family wrote about her approach to consumer protection: "Believing that confrontation between consumers and business was counterproductive, Mrs. Knauer initiated working partnerships among government, business, and consumers to resolve consumer problems through voluntary approaches and marketplace competition, rather than through legislation or regulation.